PolicyWiz

Text Rage => Interview with Corinne Gregory

2011-09-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

1) What are the main differences between face-to-face communication and communication through technology (chat rooms, instant messages, text messages)?

As we progress from “in person” communication, to phone, to hand-written words, to types, each step eliminates one layer of interaction that we use to decipher what is being “said.” When we are face-to-face, we use not only the verbal information we hear, but also the non-verbal communication signals (body language, voice inflection, etc) to communicate our message. When we drop down to phone conversation, we lose non-verbal signals and have to rely now on content and tone.

By the time we are down to the level of tech-communication, we now have ONLY the typed content, which, in and of itself, doesn’t carry much emotion, but is VERY literal. When all we have is “ink” to communicate, we have to be very careful what we say. However, because of the sterility of the environment, the distance between parties, and often the anonymity, people tend to be less careful with their words and things can escalate quickly.

2) Do you agree that there is more chance of conflict, anger, and rage through technological methods than face-to-face communication? If so, then why?

It’s one thing to be insulting or harsh with someone in-person; when we say something hurtful or in anger to someone in person, we see the reaction immediately. Often, too, we know the person, at least remotely. But, online, we can say what we want, to whom we want, and there are no repercussions to us for our words. That allows us to be more free with what we say – particularly if we are responding to something that sets us off.

3) Why do Generation X and Y prefer technological methods of communication than say Baby Boomers? Have we (the under 40 crowd) lost our way in the art of conversation?

Technology has not been our friend when it comes to interpersonal relationship skills. (I actually wrote about this in a post called the “Anti-Social Social Media”). We are increasingly used to being connected with people in this artificial means, that we are losing the art of civil discourse. In a real conversation, we have to see it through, in all its nuances. Even if we are angry with someone, there is a back-and-forth dialog that has to be addressed. It’s hard to just walk away from someone on the middle of a conversation.

However, in the online world, if you don’t like what someone says, you just press the “off’ button and they are gone. Likewise, if you say something harsh or cruel to someone in person, you have to accept the consequences – hurtful reactions, perhaps the threat of physical response if you are over-the-top. But, online you can just let fly…what are they going to do, come to your home and get you?

In the case of Josie Lou Ratley and Wayne Treacy, the answer is “yes.” That can, and DOES happen. But we don’t take responsibility for what we say online as much as we MUST offline.

4) How do you define text rage -and- how bad is it in the real world (in your own experience)?

True rage itself isn’t as prevalent as it appears from some of the major cases. But, overall incivility and anger IS increasing. And that is still troublesome. It’s like we are boiling the frog in cold water…the more “anger” and hate-speak that you are exposed to, the more that behavior becomes normal and acceptable. So, I can see more incidents of text rage occurring because it’s becoming more expected and more “normal.”

5) What is the solution to combating text rage - remedial communications' college courses?

No, the answer is prevention. Just like anti-bullying policies that really only address the problem once it IS a problem, remedial programs dealing in online communication will only put a bandaid on the situation. We have to teach our young people pro-social skills that help them understand that dealing with people in a respectful, courteous way is not only appropriate, but expected. And that means all the time, whether offline or online. We have to retrain civility because we’ve gotten so lost in how to be decent with one another. We know this kind of education works, based on research that is available, and solves several problems simultaneously because it’s focusing on prevention, not management and mitigation.

One other problem with courses in college is that you really need to “sell” it to the students on what’s in it for them to be civil. If you can’t make it relevant to them on why they should care, it won’t matter. There’s no immediate benefit that can be measured by the students to teach them to “be nice” online. You have to make it part of their M.O. early on so that you don’t have to offer remedial training later. Having said that, however, I do show in my latest book (“It’s Not Who You Know, It’s How You Treat Them”) the upside of treating people in business with courtesy and respect, so at that point there is a benefit, and that’s when it can be re-taught.

Corinne A. Gregory
Speaker, Award-Winning Educator, Author of "Putting 'Civil' Back Into 'Civilization'"

866.485.4089 (toll-free)
www.corinnegregory.com

Text Rage => Interview with Kristen Ruby

2011-09-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

1) What are the main differences between face-to-face communication and communication through technology (chat rooms, instant messages, text messages)?

Short Answer: The main difference is that you can’t read someones expressions, and you can literally hide behind the anonymous technology. Especially if you have text rage, you can shoot off ten messages in 1 minute, whereas you would never do that in real life. People say things via text message that they would otherwise never say in real life. They hide behind the technology, and especially in dating, it creates real issues.

Longer Answer:

In face-to-face communication, you can read the other person’s non-verbal cues. Non-verbal cues can range anywhere from body language and tone, to inflection and the way a person dresses. Talking to someone using technology eliminates this aspect altogether. It’s hard to understand when someone is upset with you or being sarcastic through a text message. You’re forced to use emoticons or excessive punctuation marks to convey frustration or excitement. Next, when talking to someone using technology, especially someone you’ve never met before, it allows you to be anonymous. You’re able to hide behind your phone, laptop or iPad because you aren’t in the same area as the person you may be talking to.

Another main difference between these two forms of communication is the response time between each sentence. When someone is having a conversation face-to-face, the lag time between each sentence is half a millisecond. However, if you’re talking to someone through text message, you can think before you “text” and the lag time between each text can vary. If the person you’re talking to is into the conversation, they will respond almost immediately. If someone isn’t as into the conversation, they will respond at a later time and not as enthusiastically.

2) Do you agree that there is more chance of conflict, anger, and rage through technological methods than face-to-face communication? If so, then why?

Absolutely! There is definitely more chance of conflict, anger and rage through technological methods such as texting as opposed to face to face communication. Again, people hide behind the technology. It is almost like they have “texters remorse” after firing off a bunch of messages in a row. In face to face communication, someone would walk away- so it is a very different dynamic.

Long Answer: It’s very easy to read something the wrong way or not pick up on what the person was trying to convey. Sarcasm is something that many people try to pull off when having conversation using technological methods. It’s rare to pick up on that unless you know the person very well. Otherwise, the receiver of the message takes it as a personal attack.

Many people also feel more comfortable saying things to people when they aren’t face to face (like breaking up with them via text). When people are in an argument, they prefer to discuss it through text or email because they can say things without having to see the person’s reaction to the statement. It essentially creates a protective barrier. There are also tons of glitches in technology that comes up with texting. If a text is not received, the person could get extremely angry if they think you are ignoring their text and retaliate!

3) Why do Generation X and Y prefer technological methods of communication than say Baby Boomers? Have we (the under 40 crowd) lost our way in the art of conversation?

They prefer this form of communication because it is faster, more efficient and allows you to multi task (and also crash your car!). Generation X and Y is always on the go and has grown up in a more “social media” friendly environment where they put it al out there.

The major issue for this under 40 crowd is going to be their inability to hold a conversation for any extended length of time. Technology causes extreme fragmentation in conversation- especially in meetings, during dinner dates or at work. Not only have we lost our way in the art of conversation, but we have also lost our way with netiquette and traditional etiquette manners!

4) How do you define text rage -and- how bad is it in the real world (in your own experience)?

Text rage is when you engage in battles via text messaging and shoot of messages rapidly that you would otherwise never say in the real world. It is a very real and terrible issue in the real world, and many friendships are lost to it. Now for example, if you have hostile feelings toward a friend and want to end a friendship, you let them know via text or facebook messaging as opposed to picking up the phone. Everything has truly changed.

5) What is the solution to combating text rage - remedial communications college courses?

No, remedial communications college course are NOT the answer to text rage. Underlying any form of rage via texting or in person is real anger issues. I think an increase in anger management courses would be the best possible solution to this issue. Make the classes more available to the public at large.

6) Tell me about Ruby Media Group and how does it deal with text rage.

Ruby Media Group is a Social Media Marketing, Public Relations and Personal Branding agency that helps “socialize” businesses for Web 2.0. As part of this process, RMG assists businesses in transforming traditional marketing into social media platforms. Using mediums such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN, RMG creates online visibility for its clients and increases overall branding awareness by enhancing their brand image in Web 2.0 communities.

In terms of how we deal with text rage, we teach Baby Boomers and the public how to effectively utilize new methods of technology particularly social media and mobile applications. Ruby Media has not had to deal with “text rage” issues with a client, but perhaps the larger issue is the disconnect in the form of communication that Baby Boomers want to be contacted in. As a member of Gen Y, I do not hesitate to shoot a text to a client or send them a skype message. Many of these clients would prefer to be contacted via the phone, whereas I spend considerably less time on the phone and more time with technology such as email or my mobile device. This is a huge disconnect.

7) Is there anything else that you would like to add that I didn't address?

My final tip: Picture your text message to your boss, co worker or intern on the cover of The New York Times. You may think it is private communication, but as we have all recently learned from the Anthony Weiner scandal, nothing is ever truly that private whether it is twitpic or on your mobile device!

Kristen Ruby
President
Ruby Media Group LLC

Office: 914-220-5871
Mobile: 914-417-1003
kruby@rubymediagroup.com

Connect with me on:
LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/krisruby
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/KrisRuby
Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/sparklingruby

U.S. Military Rules of Engagement

2011-09-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is filler, but humorous filler that I couldn't resist because these military axioms have some truth to them [Source: Tricare Program Intregity].

U.S. Air Force Rules

Have a cocktail.
Adjust temp on air conditioner.
See what's on Showtime.
Ask "What is a gunfight?"
Request more funding from Congress with a 'killer' PowerPoint Presentation.
Wine and dine key Congressmen and women; invite Department of Defense industry executives.
Receive said funding; set up new command and assemble assets.
Declare the assets 'stragetic' and never deploy them operationally.
Hurry to make 1345 tee-time.
Make sure the base is as far away as possible from the conflict, but close enough to have a tax exemption.

U.S. Army Rules

Curse bitterly when receiving an operational order.
Make sure there is extra ammo and an overabundance of coffee.
Curse bitterly.
Curse bitterly.
Do not listen to 2nd lieutenants; it can get you killed.
Curse bitterly.

U.S. Army Ranger Rules

Walk 50 miles wearing a 75-pound rucksack while starving.
Locate individuals that require killing.
Request permission via radio from 'higher' to perform killing.
Curse bitterly when mission is aborted.
Walk 50 miles wearing a 75-pound rucksack while starving.

U.S. Navy SEAL Rules

Looks very cool in sunglasses.
Kill every living thing within view.
Adjust Speedo.
Check hair in mirror.

Marine Corps Rules

Be courteous to everyone, but friendly to no one.
Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
Always have a plan.
Always have a back-up plan because the first one probably won't work.
Be polite. Be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
Never attend a gunfight with a caliber of handgun less than a '4.'
Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend (lateral and diagonal preferred).
Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
Always cheat. Always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
In 10 years, nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics [how true~!]. They will only remember who lived, the victor.
If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.

Chet W. Sisk Celebrates 10th Year as Living Skills Coach to Homeless

2011-06-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

by Tom Rockman Jr.

Samaritan House—In the southwest corner of the first floor inside the Catholic Charities’ run shelter in Denver, residents trickle in as the 7:30 p.m. hour approaches. They come to hear Chet W. Sisk's soothing voice and to be part of his exuberant wellspring of positive energy.

Before the master life skills’ guru arrives on Thursday, the residents break down the folding tables and form a large circle in the middle of the room. On the walls, hundreds of small gold rectangular plaques silently shout out the shelter’s benefactors.

Sisk has been teaching life skills’ techniques such as living in the moment, expanded capacity, and re-evaluating relationships to make a difference in the lives of the homeless and to shunt conventional wisdom to the street corner. When he walks through the overflow doors, the crowd takes notice of his infectious smile.

“Who wants to share their story on how they got here?”

Chet W. Sisk – The Early Days

Originally from Waterloo, Iowa, Sisk owned a very successful and renowned advertising agency, CVO Worldwide (1993-2001). After work orders for print ads in major newspapers dwindled after 9/11, he decided to call it quits in advertising and to volunteer as a life coach at Samaritan House. At first, the class was nothing more than a glorified resume-building and job search class, but it quickly evolved into something more, he said.

People are able to see themselves in your story and you are able to see yourself in somebody else’s story, said Sisk, the author of his third book, "Think This/Not That," and voiceover artist for commercial radio, television, and cable.

“It is quite cathartic and is very powerful and I kept emphasizing that more and more,” said Sisk, the father of two boys – Chet Mario, 23, and Chase Langston, 20. “That is the one constant throughout all the classes. I am a big believer in the fact that we are all connected. And when we tell our stories, we see that we are all connected. We are all having similar experiences. One of those tools that you never want to get rid of because they are something special.”

Telling Our Stories – Empowers People

Jean-Phillippe Legér, a debonair, very good-looking 47-year-old Latino from Miami, is the first to volunteer. From 2005 to 2008, Legér specialized in assisting people who were in danger of losing their homes. When his own mortgage reset, he figured that it would be easy to modify the terms of his account. In between jobs and without a steady income, his bank would not adjust his account – not eligible for a refinance. As a result, he fell several months behind in his payment.

“The pressure was too great,” said Legér, 47. “I decided to leave my house and pack everything and have the fresh start. In the interim, I lost my girlfriend of six years. I was ashamed and very upset because there was no way to re-gather and to stay at my house, so I figured the best thing to do was to leave Florida.”

Growing up in Georgetown, Kentucky, 56-year-old Robert Bedinger said that he experienced a lot of trauma because of racism, so he carried the hatred of white people in his heart for 30 years.

“What I learned in prison is that you cannot carry your past into your future,” said Bedinger, once a bricklayer, painter, and day laborer. “I hadn’t dealt with my problems in the right way. Instead of getting mad at the white man, I had to learn how to handle the trauma of getting locked up for a crime that I did not commit at the age of 16.

"I got angry; I got bitter; I got mad,” he said. “And I turned that anger into negativity when I should have turned that anger into positive so that I could help somebody else.”

Sherri Milhouse, a demure, former social worker and affable mother of two boys - Quintin, 27, and Edward, 22 - was diagnosed with congenital heart failure and blood clot disorder (some of the clots have broken up and moved to her lungs). She’s been in-and-out of the hospital eight to nine times since January 2010. She has exhausted her savings of $10,000 before arriving at the shelter.

“There has been some depression with not being to work because I love my job,” she said. “I almost live for my job. And that’s one way that I can see the passion that Chet has for his work here. I share that same passion for the job that I have.

“Being homeless is going to make me a better person and definitely a better social worker because—not only can I sympathize with my clients, but I can empathize with them. And what I think makes Chet’s class so effective is because he openly discloses that he was homeless and that he struggled, so he was in the same position that we are in. He doesn’t sugar coat it.”

The Key to Change = Transformation

One of the major themes of Sisk’s living skills repertoire, especially when dealing with homelessness and other life crises, is to transform yourself and to transform the world around you during times of transition.

Everybody talks about wanting a different kind of life, but they may not fully understand what it means or takes to go from one life to another, he said. “It takes more than allowing things to happen to you, he said. You have to truly become an agent of your own transformation.

“Transformation means that you are intending to change; that you are intending a new life; that you are intending a way your life is going to go. Change happens to us all, but transformation is a choice. My job is to create an easy, accessible way for more people to transform.”

The three objectives of his class are to bring students in participation with their own lives, to create an empowering environment, and to overcome adversity, he said. “I wanted this to be a ‘laboratory of thinking’ or to challenge the conventional wisdom of the day,” said the Southern Illinois graduate who received his bachelor’s degree in communication (1983).

Sisk has also brought his revolutionary ways of thinking to the World Assembly of Youth in Malaysia, the University of Kwazulu-Nata in Surnames, South Africa; University of Al Akwayn in Fez, Morocco; University of Toronto, Ontario; and University of Memphis in Tennessee.

"I am a living example that all of us can transform no matter what we did, wwhere we came from, or who we are," he said. "If we can know that that possibility exists for all of us, then we have a fighting chance to live our greatest life."

Jean-Phillippe Legér – Living in the Moment

It’s easy to think about the past and it’s easy to think about the future, but it’s more advantageous to live in the moment because that’s all you have, Legér said.

“You need to smell the flowers,” he said. “You realize that all that you have is this moment and this present time and try to enjoy it no matter what you are doing even if you are just watching television, having a conversation, sipping a cup of coffee – trying to realize how great it is to live in the present and to remember how those moments make you feel.”

Expanded Capacity / Re-evaluating Relationships – “I definitely took an inventory and realized that you have to change everything,” he said. “There was only one person that I could count on and that was my girlfriend, but I knew that I was going to leave her as well, possibly restart here and maybe bring her along. But realistically, it is better just to give new birth rather than resurrect the dead.

Sherri Milhouse – Lessons Learned

“I like when he talks about that you have to break the cycles,” she said. “You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different result, especially regarding unhealthy friendships and relationships, which you sometimes have to let them go.

“That is a process that I am learning now. When I got sick, that’s when I really found out who my true friendships were. When times are good, everybody wants to be around. But when you get sick, I feel that some people don’t know what to say or how to say it or what to do.”

Robert Bedinger – What concepts or ideas have resonated with you?

• How do you deal with life and what is the purpose of life?
• You can’t engage in the blame game.
• There are certain things in our lives that we have no control over.

“In this life, we are all looking for something,” Bedinger said. “And most of us are looking to be happy, but I am looking to help other people. Whatever has happened to us in the past, we have to deal with it in the present. When I wake up in the morning, my prayer is that I am going to walk in love just like Jesus did. I try to think and not react during bad situations.”

Chet W. Sisk: Genesis of New Book

One of the biggest challenges that students were facing at the homeless shelter was that they were believing ideas and concepts that weren’t necessarily true, he said, but those things are agreed upon in our general society, but they are not necessarily healthy or good or true.

"So I decided to write a book about some of those false concepts that we have embraced and to provide updated versions of those ideas primarily for the sake of helping the students to be empowered.”

Chet W. Sisk is the author of three books including “Seven Steps to Success I Learned from Homeless People (2005),” “Because You Can (2007),” and “Think This/Not That (2010)” published by Jasina Media available at Whole Foods and Amazon.com for $24.99.

For more information, go to www.chetsisk.com.

Top 10 Things I've Learned in Life So Far

2011-05-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

Δ Perception is reality . . . Concurrently, reality is chaos.
Δ Don't set your expectations too high; otherwise, you will end up hurt, disappointed, or jaded. Adjust that volume control on low and you will do fine.
Δ Throw out "Save for a rainy day." Instead, "Save as if a catastrophe is near" -or- if your life depended on it.
Δ Be cautious of what new people promise -or- say to you. It takes time to build trust, rapport, or a sense of devotion to build mutual beneficial relationships. Stick to your circle of long-term contacts, family, and friends. They are less likely to let you down.
Δ To de-stress, hangout at your favorite local mom-and-pop coffee shop such as Bardo's on South Broadway, Common Grounds in the Highlands, FLUID, -or- Gyspy House Cafe in Capitol Hill.
Δ Check out your neighborhood library, talk to a librarian, sign onto the Internet, and see what CDs and DVDs are in stock.
Δ Take a weekend "Hike in the Mountains" with a group of friends to rediscover the beauty and grandeur of one of the state or federal trails.
Δ Go to a day spa (whether it's a bath house, steam bath, or fitness center); soak in the whirlpool; and breath the cleansing fumes of a sauna. This is a great opportunity to medidate and escape from the world.
Δ Show your gratitude by writing a thank you note to someone who has made a difference in your life -or- to someone who went out of his/her way to help you.
Δ Minimize your text messaging and IMs; Maximize your face-to-face chats and telephone conversations to personalize human contact.

If you have any epiphanies, insights, observations, and/-or- revelations to share, then send them to features-ink@hotmail.com for a follow-up post.

Text Rage is Quite the Rage - Key Findings

2011-04-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

"Face-to-face communication remains the most powerful human tool," says Kathleen Begley, Ed.D. "As wonderful as electronic devices are, they can never replace the intimacy and immediacy of people conversing in the same room and it has worked for millions of years."

Texting preferred to face-to-face, say college students

Nearly half of all students in the new "University of Media" study found that text messaging is their most common method of communication while only 29 percent prefer face-to-face communication. And they're heavy texters – on average they exchange 52.4 text messages a day, with college women sending 12.6 percent more messages daily than men.

College students are very socialable and maintain large lists of contacts. The average is 87 e-mail contacts, 146 cell phone contacts, and an outstanding 438 friends on social networks.

Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS Text Messaging by Donna and Fraser Reid – University of Plymouth

According to Nokia's world-wide survey of 3,300 people, the core mobile phone market is the under-45 age group. More than 80 percent of those sampled in this survey reported text-messaging as the most-used function on their mobiles.

With regards to the Internet (McKenna et al, 2002), many people may turn to texting to form and maintain relationships in a relatively safe environment. Texting permits visual anonymity and its asynchronous nature allows for editing and self-reflection. Texters may feel at greater ease being their 'real-self' through a text message reducing the potential repercussions that may otherwise take place in a traditional face-to-face or telephone encounter.

Communication, Instant Messaging, and Other New Media by Susan Sprecher and Elizabeth Wickes

Relative to face-to-face and voice communications, text-based communication has lower social presence and reduced social cues. That is, the other is less 'present' in the interaction, and therefore, there are fewer cues as to the other person's characteristics and emotional reactions. Messages that require nonverbal cues for interpretation, such as sarcasm, can lead to misunderstandings.

In addition, text-based messages, particularly when there is anonymity, can lead to disinhibition in behavior including FLAMING. This behavior involves writing negative comments and interpersonal attacks and can occur in any text-based medium.

Kristen Ruby, President – Ruby Media Group, LLC

There are serious psycho-emotional consequences of text messaging that severely differ from the anonymous nature of text messaging, which makes it entirely possible to sit across the table from someone and act professional – yet two minutes later – text them everything you really wanted to say, but couldn't say in person.

Where do you draw the line between what is professional and what is not? Things said via text are almost non-emotional as they do not elicit the same response as saying the same angry messages in person. The problem with texting is that it allows you to completely run wild with your words in a way that you wouldn't via face to face.

The best approach is "restraint of pen, tongue and text." Step away from your device, especially if you feel you can only spew out negative messages. Once you send them out, you can never take them back.

Judiciary Committee Faces Moment of Truth

2011-03-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

Just like State Sen. Nancy Spence (R-Arapahoe) has realized, it is about time that conservative Republicans get off their moral high ground and open their minds to recognize that gay and lesbian couples exist and have lived together throughout American history. And that these couples deserve the same rights as married couples.

I am a moderate gay Republican who supports civil unions, but not gay marriages. In The Conscience of the Conservative, Barry Goldwater says: "The conservative looks upon politics as the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of the social order."

In 2006, the “one man-one woman” definition of marriage was passed by 55 percent of Colorado voters and the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Responsibilities Act (Referendum I) was narrowly defeated. Five years later, the issue has resurfaced and it is ripe for consideration by the Colorado State Legislature.

Gay and lesbian couples are not asking for special rights; they are asking for equal rights under the law and for the thousands of benefits that go along with marriage. Since the traditional definition of marriage is protected, what harm is there in allowing the civil unions bill to be considered by the full house?

This is a pivotal moment for the Goldwater Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who subscribe to limited government and "maximum amount of freedom." Will they do the right thing in the name of justice and in the “pursuit of liberty” –or- will they fall back on the auspices of bigotry, ignorance, prejudice, and discrimination?

Tales of the Absurd #1

2010-11-16T11:02:00.001-08:00

Demonic Teddy Bears Take Over Samaritan House

Teddy bears are cute little things. They come in many colors and shapes and sizes. They are innocent, inanimate creatures that wouldn’t harm a fly even if they were alive. But for some reason, whenever residents at the Catholic Charities’ shelter come in contact with these plush toy animals, they act strangely.

Those red beady eyes emanate into the corridors of the shelter, beckoning and pleading for anyone to do their bidding. In mid-August, an older female resident took a weathered teddy bear to the women’s locker and she heard the Napoleon-complex security guard shout: “Hold on! Let go of the teddy bear and drop to the ground! It is not your property.”

Turns out one of her bunkmates had asked her to pick it up for her. But Samaritan House has a “Zero Tolerance” policy on touching or cuddling up to property that is not yours. This poor soul was an emotional wreck because she meant no harm as her makeup dripped down her clown face. She was discharged for a week. She filed an appeal and won the right to return.

The teddy bear smiled to itself. While the majority of residents sleep at 2 a.m., it wanders the halls of the men’s and women’s dorm – hoping to find another resident to taunt.

A few weeks ago, a similar event occurred. One of the Hispanic residents with thinning hair volunteered to unload a donation truck. In one of the boxes was an evil black teddy bear with gleaming red eyes.

“Give me away,” it said with seething teeth. “Give me away.”

Another female resident joined the effort and helped unload the truck. The intensity of his eyes grew ever-so-slightly; he hid the teddy bear under his coat; and presented it to the pretty short blonde female—in proposal swoon.

She was mesmerized by the gift, but forgot the Zero Tolerance Rule #4 – Theft of any property belonging to other residents or to Samaritan House is forbidden.

When it was discovered that she had committed the Unpardonable Sin (God forbid), she was handed her walking papers and started to cry incessantly.

It’s ok to stockpile as many books (many rare old titles) from the shelter’s many bookshelves and boxes to read or to sell, but touch one lonely teddy bear and the world comes to an end.

Well, she won her appeal and she will be reunited with her circle of friends very soon, as soon as a bed is available. The bewildered-and-confused Latino was not so lucky and he is living on the streets once again.

Somewhere in the dark corners of Samaritan House, a group of teddy bears – congregating in the donation bin, crawling around in the air ducts, or planning an ambush in the chapel – await their next move. They want to convert as many human beings to their side by Dec. 13, 2013.

Get your stakes. Get your crosses. Get your holy water.

These bandits are the new boogieman and they aren’t going away any time soon.

Quirky Quotes

2010-09-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

The Code of the West
Hanging on the wall in my room.

Live each day with courage.
Take pride in your work.
Always finish what you start.
Do what has to be done.
Be tough, but fair.
When you make a promise, keep it.
Ride for the brand.
Talk less and say more.
Remember that some things aren't for sale.
Know where to draw the line.

"People should live up to their monogamous commitments, which, after all, have the form of a mutually-negotiated contract. But they should not expect anything unrealistic from themselves or each other, since such agreements, however binding, are unnatural. Sex will have its way with us one way or another—either by shaping our commitments to the form of its fulfillment or by making us miserable. For Aristotle, we are what we repeatedly do. For Dan Savage, we are what we enduringly desire." – Rules of Misbehavior by Benjamin J. Dueholm

A human being is part of a whole, called the 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. – Albert Einstein

Inner Light Ministries asks all of its participants to make certain that their words pass the "Four Sufi Gates": 1) Is it true? 2) Does it need to be said? 3) Can it be said out of love with kindness? 4) Does it need to be said by me? Keep praying until you can get through all of the gates.

There is unemployment, a brief and relatively routine transitional state that results from the rise and fall of companies in any economy, and there is unemployment—chronic, all-consuming. The former is a necessary lubricant in any engine of economic growth. The latter is a pestilence that slowly eats away at people, families, and, if is spreads widely enough, the fabric of society. Indeed, history suggests that it is perhaps society's most noxious ill. – "How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America" by Don Peck in The Atlantic

Adyahanti, The End of Your World: "Ultimately, the whole of spirituality boils down to letting go of the illusion of the separate self, letting go of the way we think the world is and the way we think it should be."

"Your sadness, your anger will not solve the problem. More sadness, more frustration only brings more suffering for yourself ... No matter how tragic the situation, we should not lose hope." – Dalai Lama

"Learning is not attending, listening, or reading. Nor is it merely gaining knowledge. Learning is really about translating knowing what to do into doing what we know. It's about changing." => John G. Miller in The Question Behind the Question?

Lord Henry from Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray": There’s no such thing as good influence, Mr. Gray ... Why? Because the aim of life is self-development—to realize one’s nature perfectly. That’s what we’re here for. A man should devote his life fully and completely … give form to every feeding; expression to every thought; and reality to every dream.
Every impulse that we express broods in the mind and poisons us. There is only one way to get rid of a temptation and that is to yield to it. Resist it and the soul grows sick and with longing for the things that is forbidden to itself. There is nothing to cure the soul, but the senses, just as there is nothing that can cure the senses but the soul.

Divyavadana: “What we have done will not be lost to all eternity. Everything ripens at its time and becomes fruit at its hour.”

Library of Congress Portal Inscription: Ignorance is the curse of God. Knowledge, the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. There is one only God, namely knowledge. And one only evil, namely ignorance.

Denver Artist Feile Case Reveals an Epiphany in Westword (09-03-98 Issue) “A lot of people tend to have a really large fear of their own power. That’s what people should be looking at—we should be embracing our own chaos, working with that rather than allowing that fear to control the big picture.”

Walter Cronkite in A Reporter’s Life: “Stories change with each retelling. Even a person really trying for the most faithful recital of events is almost invariably susceptible to slight modifications, certain little embellishments, with each recital. Accuracy of a story is in direct relation to how soon after the event it is recorded, and how frequently the story has been retold.”

Dr. Lonnie Kliever, SMU's Religious Studies Department Chair: “One religion's lunacy is another religion’s sanity. One religion's heresy is another religion's orthodoxy.”

Reinhold Niebuhr in The Irony of American History: “Let the righteous nation understand the divine judgment that waits on human pretension—and never forget ‘the depth of evil’ to which individuals and communities may sin, particularly when they try to play the role of God in history.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent . . . the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”

Barry Goldwater, the Father of Conservatism: “The Constitution doesn’t say anything about gays . . . It gives us freedom of speech; it gives us freedom of association. It gives us other freedoms as long as the expression of those freedoms does not do any harm to anybody else. Now that’s a great thing to remember because I know there are people even today that want to question in this country whether or not we should be nice to people who are gay. I think that we should.”

American Biographer Catherine Drinker Bowen: “Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice . . . once in reality and once in the mirror which waits always before or behind.”

Dialog Excerpt from Motorcycle Diaries

Silvia, a Leper at San Pablo’s Colony:

“Life is pain.”

Ernesto: “Yeah, it’s pretty screwed up. You gotta fight for every breath and tell death to go to hell.”

26 Random Things

2010-04-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

26 Random Things You Wanted to Know About Me

But Were Afraid to Ask

•According to my grandmother Cecile Richards, our French ancestors sailed down the St. Lawrence Seaway and founded Quebec. In fact, she said that our family name is inscribed in the base of a huge statue, which is located there.
•My middle name is the same as my grandfather’s first name—Reginald. He was a bus driver for Greyhound for more than 30 years before he retired and died of a heart attack.
•My father Tom Rockman, Sr. worked at the Mead Paper Mill in Escanaba, Michigan, for 25+ years and then he contracted pancreatic cancer and died two years later.
•My most unusual job? That would be reviewing adult porn for www.bluedoor.com and www.radvideo.com (1999-2000). In fact, I wrote more than 60 reviews for these sites and I have interviewed several gay porn stars such as Aiden Shaw and Chris Steele.
•From June 1998 to May 2002, I was a part-time freelance writer/editor, doing project work for Internet start-ups and publishing companies.
•My favorite colors are camouflage green, sky blue, and black. Eighty percent of my T-shirts in my closet are black. My mom’s favorite color is also black.
•For the past year, I worked at an upscale “romantics’” shop (i.e., I sold dildos, vibrators, condoms, lubes, male enhancement pills, ladies’ lingerie, and women’s shoes).
•Ironically, I sold more sexy women’s and stripper’s shoes that any other item.
•I met both my roommate Ken and Mr. Right #2 Kevin Weller (1994-2002) on the Internet—the first on a sex site and the second on a “bulletin board,” the forerunner to chat rooms.
•I love fruits—the more exotic the better—including kiwi, mangos, and guavas.
•I despise green leafy things especially broccoli and spinach.
•The only regret that I have so far is not having children or adopting children. My last boyfriend was not interested in having kids.
•My first boyfriend James Eric Ramsey (1970-1993), a Dallas gay rights activist, died of HIV/AIDS when he was only 22 years old. The advent of protease inhibitors didn’t come around until 1997, so the only treatment back then was a high and sometimes toxic dosage of AZT.
•When James tested positive in November 1990, he thought that I was going to dump him because of his HIV status. I did not; in fact, I embraced him, literally. The whole experience drew us closer. I was not afraid of something unseen as long as we practiced safe sex (I was HIV-).
•It was because of James that I made the transformation from shy, reserved introvert to outspoken, direct, and honest extrovert.
•I was active duty U.S. Air Force from April 1986 to January 1990. I loved the pomp and circumstance; I hated my job as an electronics technician. My brother Aaron enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in May 1997 and trained to be an air traffic controller, one of the highest “washout” rates in the military. He loves his job, but he hates the military.
•For two consecutive weekends in 1989, I partied with Debbie Reynolds in Dallas during her “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” tour in Dallas. How did this happen? I met one of her backup dancers, Michael Tapley, at the Village Station and he invited me to a performance at the music hall as well as a private show in his hotel bedroom.
•My favorite celebrity is Joan Collins whom I met at Foley’s in North Dallas in early 1990 when she was promoting her new perfume, which I bought for my mother for her birthday. I took my landlord Michael to see her in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” that same year. In February 2008, I bought front-row tickets to “Legends,” starring Joan Collins and Linda Evans from “Dynasty.”
•Denver is a great place for couples; however, it extremely difficult to meet a compatible gay male who wants to date and who wants to get to know you as an individual. On the plus side, it is a great place to find friends and friends with benefits.
•Around 9/11, I still had brown hair. Now, I have salt-and-pepper hair, which I tried to color brown and it turned out to be a complete and smelly mess. So now, I just buzz it all off every two weeks for maximum effect to attract Denver twinks.
•I have been to Germany twice and Norway once. I plan on taking a trip to Perth, Australia, in 2012 and to San Francisco for Spring Break.
•I am originally from Escanaba, Michigan, which is located in the Upper Peninsula, the part that is connected to Wisconsin. Think Fargo dialect and vocabulary—“ya,” “youse guys,” “ya betcha,” and “ya know.”
•My favorite band is Tool; my favorite movie is “Legend” (1986); my favorite book is “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by John Berendt; and my favorite TV show is "Glee."
•In 1994, I did my summer journalism internship at the Savannah Morning News. Savannah was the setting for John Berendt’s book and was released that year. His book sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.
•Along with my friend Thomas Tucker, I met Charles Kasper at the Village Station in summer 1997. The song playing on the dance floor was Culture Beat’s “Mr. Vain.” He is still Mr. Sexy after all of these years.
•Since I have a worthless master's degree in public administration, I project that I will eventually end up either as a politician (would have to raise $100K for a 2012 run), massage therapist (too many in Denver already), or late-blooming porn star (yes, I need to get my upper body back in shape).

Obama is not God; He is a human being

2009-01-20T17:43:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congratulations to the inauguration of our country's first black president. I wish him the best of luck as he tackles the greatest set of challenges (domestic and international) that any president has been dealt since Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

However, in the midst of this celebratory milestone in U.S. history, there are those in the media elite and a plurality of American voters that have already created a deity in their own imperfect image. CNN, Fox News, and major news organizations are setting him up as an infallible man – only to tear him down later – while reporting Obama's every mundane and inconsequential move.

We have reached the point where we no longer have great to exceptional presidents such as Thomas Jefferson, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. What we have now is a self-defeatist, suffocating 24/7 news cycle that prevents modern-day presidents from attaining anything but mediocre to good status.

And the American voters are to blame . . . so many individuals (after a failed and inept Bush presidency) are going in the extreme opposite direction by anointing Barack Obama a saint and bowing down to his perceived Savior status.

Why don't we take a more pragmatic and realistic approach to viewing the new president as a good man who wants (and can do) great things for this country? At the same time, where is the money going to come from for the $825 billion stimulus package, the first of which had no lasting positive effect on the economy last spring?

People like to be hoodwinked and pretend that Obama is a moderate and a conciliatory politician. The truth is that he is the most liberal president ever. Let's hope that he will keep the interests of the independents and centrists in mind when he is making decisions that will impact their lives and well-being.

Sure, pull out of Iraq, but don't go bombing Pakistan without just cause. And how are you, Mr. President, actually going to create 2.5 million to 3 million jobs when the private sector is projected to lose 2 million jobs in 2009 by attrition? And is weaning our dependence off of global oil in 10 years a doable objective?

Have you seen the red, blue, and peach Obama posters? My God, his likeness resembles some of the old Soviet Union propaganda fliers featuring Stalin and Lenin. Are we so naive that Obama is being pumped up with such high, unobtainable expectations that he is doomed for failure? Why are we as a society worshipping this guy even as he is being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States?

It is a watershed event, but do we honestly think that he will be the only black president ever to be elected? We will more than likely see a woman president (Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin) or even a Hispanic president (definitely NOT Jeb Bush, but maybe his son George P. Bush) in our lifetime.

Meager recommendation: the media needs to BACK OFF and let this man do his job. Already, CNN is offering minute-by-minute coverage of Barack's first 100 days. How much will he be able to accomplish with cameras in his face constantly?

Reality check: the left- to center-left electorate needs to adjust their perceptions of this man without having crazy thoughts of grandeur as it relates to what is and what is not possible given the financial constraints that our government faces and the international crises that clamor at Obama's front door.

Why Obama Wins Big Time

2008-11-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

It’s Sunday night before Election Day and all is not well within the Republican Party. The McCain/Palin camp is scampering across Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida in a last ditch effort to bring out the conservative base and to pray for a save from undecided and independent voters.

Yet, the handwriting is on the wall . . . Obama wins big time.

The United States of America is about to elect its first African-American president. Being a die-hard Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter during the Democratic primaries, I would have preferred it to have been the first woman president. However, there is no denying the historical impact and worldwide implications of this election.

Here are my predictions—Barack Obama and Joe Biden will receive between 51.5% and 52.5 % of the popular vote. John McCain and Sarah Palin will receive 44.5% to 45.5% of the popular vote with the remaining 2% to 3% going to third party candidates such as Libertarian Bob Barr and Independent Ralph Nader.

What is remarkable about this campaign is Barack Obama’s ability to turn states formerly known as red into the aspiring blue-purple column. Examples include Florida, Ohio, Missouri, and in a master stroke of political repositioning, North Carolina and Virginia, which hasn’t voted Democratic since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

The reasons why Obama wins the 2008 presidency

His calm, cool, and collective demeanor.
A consistent message of change that resonates with blue-collar workers and the middle class.
His contemplative and consensus-building approach to problem-solving.
The astronomical number of new voters, especially 18- to 25-year-olds.
Star power – Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, etc.
Money talks —his $454 million trumps McCain’s $230 million (Source: CNN).
And the kicker—Obama's solutions to fixing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression [McCain=inept and inert].

To be continued . . .

July 4, 2026 – Independence Day

2008-10-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

July 4, 2026 (USA)—Imagine a time when our constitutional democracy evolves into an inclusive system of government that includes a viable, energetic, and active third party made up of independent moderates, and disenfranchised and unaffiliated voters.

Let’s call it the Independence Party of America.

Wouldn’t it be a great idea—and a grand possibility—if partisans and talking heads could put politics and ideology aside to create a Third Way that represented the interests of the lower and middle classes as well as small business owners and entrepreneurs?

As part of his New Deal II proposals, Barack Obama could pass incremental steps to national healthcare reform and a future Sarah Palin presidency may—ironically—finally rid our political process of lobbyists and corruption for good.

Once we make progress on the domestic front, maybe there will be more of a non-Socialist, collectivist approach to climate change, to sending a manned mission to Mars, and to weaning Americans off of their dependence on foreign oil spurred by a third party movement.

What would this party look like? First, it would take a "sliding-scale" approach to regulation and deregulation in the free market. Add plenty of Barry Goldwater libertarianism, emphasizing the importance of limited government in the areas that matter. Throw in a streak of social consciousness and consumer advocacy that Theodore Roosevelt made famous.

Plus, stir in a Lou Dobbs’ guardian role for the working class that protects U.S. sovereignty and American jobs. Also, we need to put a flame underneath our elected representatives to get our financial house in order by mandating that they run the government like a business and by requiring an annual balanced budget.

Can this be done? Is there enough pie for everyone? Who knows, but every program and expenditure needs to be scrutinized and inefficient/wasteful programs need to be excised from the budget—easier said than done, but it needs to be done nonetheless.

Citizens complain that there are very few differences between the two major parties—that Democrats and Republicans have morphed into this unrecognizable creature. Both want to continue skyrocketing social programs that the country can no longer afford and no one has the balls to touch. Both seem to have forgotten the importance of soft power and diplomacy to achieve U.S. strategic objectives abroad. Both seem more focused on corporate interests over the interests of the common man.

I know that this proposition is a long-shot, but I love the way that the Independence Party of America sounds. It rings true to the intent and ideas of our Founding Fathers, which was to integrate a system of checks and balances in a strong, central government while attempting to “strike a balance” amongst various factions competing for scarce resources, and while allowing for compromise and consensus.

Somewhere along the line, the Democrats and Republicans have lost sight of their real purpose, which is to represent “we the people” and to form a “more perfect union” out of a diverse citizenry. Somehow, someday, this will sink into the minds of our elected officials, and I wish and hope that the next charismatic and influential leader would take on the mantle of the Third Way.

Re: Obama’s Iraq Problem

2008-07-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

George Packer Wants to Turn Barack Obama to the Dark Side in Iraq

In a July 7, 2008, New Yorker article, George Packer nudges Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama to the dark side by adopting a scary, recycled foreign policy that buys into the neo-conservative view that American soldiers should continue to fight a losing/no-win war in Iraq for several more years and to milk the American tax payers of billions of dollars.

In the article, he writes: There will be no such thing as victory in Iraq, but the next president, if he remains nimble, may be able to keep the damage under control . . . One can imagine him speaking more honestly on Iraq. If pressed on his timetable for withdrawal, he could say, ‘That was always a goal, not a blueprint. When circumstances change, I don’t close my eyes—I adapt.’

Since when has Iraq been “under control”? Oh yeah, the so-called illusion of the “surge,” which has provided a temporary respite from the chaos. How exactly should Obama “adapt”? Excuse me, George, but Obama has explicitly stated from the very beginning that he endorses—and plans on executing—a phased withdrawal from an unjust war and that he will redirect his efforts to the real war on terror from the Middle East to Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

How long must this charade continue before talking heads such as George Packer realize that the United States of America has been a laughingstock on the world stage during the last seven years because of George W. Bush’s and John McCain’s misconceived, ill-implemented, and wishful-thinking Iraq policy?

Wake up America~!!

Packer’s justification sounds eerily similar to Lyndon B. Johnson’s reasoning for continuing an American presence in Vietnam during which we lost more than 55,000 lives and of which turned out to be a glorified pissing contest (i.e., the “Domino Effect”) between the Soviet Union and the United States.

How many more American lives must be sacrificed to the blood-lust desires of the elite? How many Iraqi civilians must die in order for Americans to wake up to the fact that Iraq is a foreign policy black hole that will suck all of our country’s energy, time, money, and resources indefinitely if we don’t stop it—immediately.

Recently, President George W. Bush has capitulated when he and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed to set a “time horizon” for reducing U.S. forces in Iraq. Even al-Maliki has voiced his support for Barack’s plan for a phased withdrawal in an e-mail, mistakenly released by the Bush Administration.

The time has come for the United States and its citizens to question – and to stand up to – armchair foreign policy analysts like George Packer, and to support Barack Obama’s original phased withdrawal plan without interruption and without reservation.

Denver Wins Bid to Host Democratic National Convention

2008-01-08T18:06:00.000-08:00

If Denver can handle the Pope, then it can handle the Democratic National Convention (DNC) coming to town in 2008, said Denver City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth who led the lobbying campaign to bring the DNC to Denver for the first time in a century.

Western pioneers founded this region because of their courage and because they wanted to “stake their claim,” she said, and those qualities still resonate today. Today’s Democrat Party has a broader, more inclusive message that it wants to share with American voters regardless of party affiliation, she said.

“In 1908, the Ku Klux Klan was running Denver,” said the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee President. “But now, you have one African-American woman and two Latino women on this host committee that’s bringing the convention here for the same reason why they did it a hundred years ago—for economic development and to promote the city.”

Democrats seem to be unifying behind one theme—that the West is the gateway to the presidency in 2008. Consequently, the party is actively courting independents and new Western Democrats who have shifted at least five states—Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona—from red to purple (and maybe blue) on the political spectrum.

“There is no question that the West is important to the future of the Democratic Party,” Howard Dean said in a January 11 press release. “The recent Democratic gains in the West exemplify the principle that when we show up and ask for people’s votes and talk about what we stand for, we can win in any part of the country. We also have a number of strong Democratic leaders in the West who will be a part of showcasing the vision of Democratic leadership for America as we introduce the next Democratic President in the Rocky Mountains.”

Wedgeworth agrees that the next President of the United States will be nominated at the Denver DNC in 2008. The host committee worked harder and stayed on it longer; in fact, on a scale from 1 to 10 for enthusiasm, the DNC Selection Committee gave the local host committee a 20, she said. “I think that is our tenacity and our focus,” she said. “Sometimes, when you see the light, you go towards the light and that’s all you see.”

Host Committee Co-Chair Juanita Chacon said that more than 35,000 people are expected to attend the August 25-28, 2008 Democratic National Convention including 4,950 delegates and alternates, plus 7,000 volunteers who will converge at the Pepsi Center.

In February 2006, the Denver Host Committee presented a 15-pound bid book to 400+ party delegates in New Orleans, she said. This thick, bid book covered all of the major bases of running a political convention including fundraising, infrastructure, lodging, logistics, media, safety and security, technical, and transportation, she said.

The main selling points were the Pepsi Center’s basketball court seating layout and capacity, the Hilton Regency in downtown Denver, and the new RTD light-rail expansion, she said. The whole project won’t cost taxpayers a dime. To date, the host committee has raised more than $23 million through private contributions and sponsorships, she said.

“Denver was the right choice for all the right reasons,” she said. “We knew all along that it made more sense for the DNC to select us because we could deliver not just the logistical part, but the political part of electing a Democratic president. That’s the key. That’s what we are really striving for.”

Chacon said that Wedgeworth deserves much of the credit for the host committee’s success. “At first, people didn’t buy into her vision, but she persevered, which eventually led to the formation of the group that ultimately became the host committee,” she said. “It was her tenacity that paid off when she lobbied Howard Dean to pick Denver as the host site.”

Howard Dean also congratulated Governor Bill Ritter, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Senator Ken Salazar, and the other members of the Denver Host Committee for their involvement in putting together a “first-rate national convention bid.”

For more info about the Democratic National Convention, go to DNC-Denver 2008.

=> Originally written for and published in the March 2, 2007, edition of The Advocate, the University of Colorado at Denver’s editorially independent, student-run weekly newspaper.

Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen

2008-01-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

Mike Jones, 49, knew that he was gay when he was 5 years old. He’s a body builder; voted Out Front Colorado's “Best of Denver” Massage Therapist multiple times; personal trainer; the middle of three brothers; and sexually active at age 12. When he turned 18, he started an escort service. “I didn’t know what ‘gay’ meant, but I was attracted to men at a very, very, very early age.”

Jones has two words to describe the supposed rehabilitation and proclamation of “completely heterosexual” by his former client, the Rev. Ted Haggard—honesty and denial.

“First of all, he calls his homosexuality his ‘dark and dirty’ side,” he said. “He says he’s been warring against this his whole adult life. How sad is it that you can’t even be yourself? If he wants to pretend that he’s cured, that’s fine. If you continue to deny it, then you’re never going to be honest with yourself; therefore, you’re never going to be truly happy.”

During the summer of 2003, Jones said that Haggard responded to an Internet sex ad and showed up at his Capital Hill condo as “Art.” What began as therapeutic massage morphed into sex-for-hire and party-and-play (Haggard allegedly used methamphetamine, which was provided by a third party). The couple met on average once a month for 2-1/2 years, Jones said.

In April 2006, while watching the Discovery Channel, Jones spotted “Art” being interviewed for a program about the anti-Christ. Jones realized that Haggard was the evangelical pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the 30-million strong National Association of Evangelicals.

“If people think that I just woke up one morning and that I wanted to out Ted Haggard, they are missing a huge part of what I went through,” he said. “It was very agonizing for me to reach the decision (to contact the media in August 2006). At the time that I did it, I had no clue what was going to happen. It was an internal battle.”

Mike Jones considers himself a spiritual person, believes in a God, but which God is a matter of theological debate, he said. The problem with religion today is that every person thinks that he or she is right, yet nobody can say for sure, he said.

“I find it so ironic that the heterosexual community is so adamant about preventing gay marriage with its 50 percent divorce rate, multiple marriages, multiple children in different marriages, spousal abuse, infidelity, and TV shows such as ‘Girls Gone Wild’ and ‘Wife Swap,’ yet gay people are the immoral ones,” Jones said.

Even before the Mike Jones-Ted Haggard controversy came out, the 24-hour news channels have been saturated with tales of sexual molestation by priests in the Catholic Church, youth pastors resigning over sexual impropriety, and married men who have sex with men. What does this say about the institution of marriage and the conflicting roles of “straight” men in our country? The story of Mike Jones and Ted Haggard is but a microcosm of this cultural phenomenon.

“What I want people to understand is that Ted Haggard is the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “Granted, a huge tip, but people need to never forget this because it goes much deeper than just Haggard and the fundamentalist churches. And if you haven’t noticed, none of them have changed any of their policies or ideas towards homosexuals, so the prejudice is still there.”

In June 2007, Seven Stories Press will release “I Had to Say Something,” the official memoir of the Mike Jones-Ted Haggard saga. In the book, Jones recalls the trigger that swayed his decision to out President Bush’s confidant. Commenting on a Gay Pride Parade in Colorado Springs, Haggard allegedly told The Republic, “You might as well have a murderer’s day parade.”

There were two steps that Ted Haggard could’ve taken to prevent the writing and publishing of Mike Jones’ first book—one, he needed to apologize to Jones personally, and second, he needed to apologize to the GLBT community, he said.

“You know what’s ironic about the hypocrisy of the church?” he asked. “Ted Haggard preached that if you have homosexual tendencies and you act them out, then you cannot enter the Kingdom of God,” he said. “When I finally broke the story, the immediate response from his parishioners was, “Hah, Ted Haggard is only human. We all have faults. We all are sinners.”

“And I’m thinking, yeah! That’s my point. We are only human, but don’t tell other people how to live. The fundamentalists say gays are going to hell if they don’t live a certain way. But if one of their own breaks the rules, then he’s just ‘human.’ They can’t have it both ways.”

=> Originally written for and published in the April 4, 2007, edition of The Advocate, the University of Colorado at Denver’s editorially independent, student-run weekly newspaper.

Straights Want Their Weddings, but Queer Folk Want Their Benefits

2008-01-08T17:54:00.000-08:00

Colorado Marriage Amendment (Amendment 43) vs. Domestic Partnership Benefits and Responsibilities Act (Referendum I)

DENVER, COLORADO—On Nov. 7, 2006, UCD students and faculty will have to decide whether to define traditional marriage as between “one woman and one man” and whether same sex couples should be allowed to be conferred the same benefits afforded to straight couples.

According to the Initiative & Referendum Institute, Amendment 43 and Referendum I follows the November 2004 Election when citizens in 15 states voted to amend their constitutions to explicitly define traditional marriage as between “one man and one woman.”

This sweep was viewed as a rebuttal to the Massachusetts Supreme Court's controversial ruling in February 2004 that its state constitution contained a “right” to gay marriage. Seven more states have marriage amendments on the ballot this year including Alabama (approved in June), Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

“If Coloradoans vote for Amendment 43, it would create an ‘extra level of protection’ against activist judges such as those in Massachusetts from overturning state law,” said Executive Director Jon Paul of Coloradans for Marriage. “What we've seen in other states – and it’s inevitable to see here as well – is that there are activists and activist judges who are willing to overturn the state statutes that have established marriage as ‘one man and one woman.’”

There are only four states in the union that guarantee civil rights to gay and lesbian couples – domestic partnership benefits in California and Connecticut, civil unions in Vermont, and gay marriage in Massachusetts. Colorado could possibly become the first state to ban gay and lesbian couples from getting married while offering them domestic partnerships in exchange.

Attorney Patrick Steadman, lobbyist for Equality Rights Colorado, said Referendum I provides the basic legal rights and protections that state law gives to married couples and extends those to same-sex couples. There are “hundreds and hundreds” of state laws that provide protections and benefits to people based on their marital status, he said.

“The number of benefits is hard to quantify,” he said. “You can say that Referendum I will provide inheritance rights’ protections to same sex couples. But if you break that down, there are dozens and dozens of different things in the probate code related to inheritance. Is that one protection or do you count that as dozens?”

He said that it’s unfortunate that most married people take for granted the things that protect them when they need it most—when somebody dies, when somebody has a medical emergency, when they’re splitting up and fighting over property and debt, and child custody-support.

For example, if you die without a will, then your partner would have “standing” as an heir and would be entitled to a portion of the estate; if your partner makes a will, he or she can't remove your name from a legally-binding document, he said.

“It's impossible right now for a married couple to write a will, saying ‘My wife was a shrewd and I leave her nothing,’” he said. “Even if the will states that, the widow still has the right to claim a part of the estate because of marriage status.

“Domestic partnerships don't work that way. If you don't want to leave a damn thing to your partner in your will, there's nothing that he [or she] can do to change that. So Referendum I is an inheritance protection against being disinherited that is part of the probate code.”

Reality Check

The nation’s marriage rate has dropped from three-quarters of American households in 1966 to slightly more than half today (Source: “The Future of Marriage” by David Masci). In the report, the author says that close to 50 percent of all U.S. marriages now end in divorce and the number of households with unmarried couples has risen dramatically.

According to the article, some scholars say that traditional marriage will not disappear altogether, but it will never again be the nation's “pre-eminent” social arrangement.

“We are preserving the definition of that word called marriage,” said Jon Paul, who received his law degree from Quinnipiac University in May 2005. “There are no established rights that we are taking away. Perhaps, people would like to redefine marriage to create new rights. All we are doing is proposing a simple amendment that defines a word that has meaning and has had meaning throughout the centuries.”

Coloradans for Marriage take no position on domestic partnerships, he said, and Steadman said that – although he opposes Amendment 43 – he sees no conflict of legal interest between the two measures.

“What will voters do?” Steadman asked. “I think that Colorado voters are pretty middle of the road. I actually think this compromise that's being presented to them makes sense to people. I think people understand the fairness. And I think that it’s highly likely that Colorado voters will pass Referendum I and will pass Amendment 43 as well.”

Peering into the Crystal Ball – The Future of Marriage

In the future, David Masci predicts that the United States will be similar to Europe where couples increasingly choose to cohabit rather than marry. Steadman echoes that by saying most European countries have already adopted some system of domestic partnerships, civil unions, or the equivalent of gay marriage.

“Every nation that's instituted such programs has found that ‘the sun still rises tomorrow,’” he said. “They haven’t destroyed the social fabric of their country. And, in fact, it’s just made some people more secure, have more responsibility, and enjoy the same protections that their neighbors have. And so, I think it’s bound to be a very positive thing.”

But other experts argue that the recent decrease in the divorce rate and other positive trends point to a brighter future for marriage. “For thousands of years in every society, marriage between one man and one woman has been a ‘normative feature’ of stable society and the primary purpose of Amendment 43 is to protect the institution of marriage,” said Jon Paul.

Follow the Money Trail

Coloradans for Marriage is a coalition of “concerned citizens” that includes Focus on the Family, the Rocky Mountain Family Council, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the Catholic Conference of Colorado. Coloradans for Fairness & Equality is an association of GLBT- and straight-friendly supporters who are trying to raise awareness and voter support for Referendum I. The group’s brainchild is Tim Gill, founder of Quark and infamous gay philanthropist.

According to the Associated Press, Colorado donors have contributed more than $1.3 million to the two ballot initiatives combined. As of Aug. 2, 2006, the pro-marriage advocates have raised $750,720 and domestic partnerships supporters have collected more than $613,000, per figures provided by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.

=> Originally written for and published in the Sept. 13, 2006, edition of The Advocate, the University of Colorado at Denver’s editorially independent, student-run weekly newspaper.

Student Cell Phone Users Are Not “Living In the Moment”

2008-01-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

This new way of seeing and new way of being holds life fragments and gives them place. It honors each moment in its own fullness within a larger fullness. Mindfulness practice is simply the ongoing discovery of the thread of interconnectedness. At some point, we may even come to see that it is not quite correct to say that we are doing the threading. It's more like we become conscious of a connectedness that has been here all the time. We have climbed to a vantage point from which we can more readily perceive wholeness and can cradle the flow of present moments in awareness. – Jon Kabat-Zinn in “Wherever You Go, There You Are.”

On campus and elsewhere, modern technology has created a collective of Borg students who continuously speak into their cell phones and who wander around in a self-induced delusional daze. How long will it take for cell phones to be surgically implanted in our brains? I'm sure that hundreds of CCD, Metro and UCD students will be the first to sign up for the clinical trial.

The hustle and bustle of today's fast food, fast cars and instant communications has left us in a state of confusion, lack of substantiality and a false sense of urgency. Cell phones have contributed to this by giving people a false sense of inflated ego and importance that bleeds over into every aspect of life.

Most of the time, cell phones create a distraction or detriment to the process of interacting with other students and in their campus environment, and innocent bystanders are forced to suffer the unintended consequences. Most student cell users are not “living in the moment,” are not “mindful” of their surroundings, and are not in a state of “being-ness.”

It is apparent to me that students are addicted to talking frivolously to people they already talk to on a regular basis during non-school hours anyway. What is the purpose - to propagate a detached and arrogant attitude as you glide along the sidewalk? Is it really necessary to carry on needless conversations that non-cell phone users must assimilate into their psyche?

One of the benefits of a collegiate experience is to interact with other students and professors in class and on campus – in the hallways, in the commons areas, and at the Tivoli Center. In my first year as a journalism undergrad at the University of Texas at Arlington (1991-1992), I had the privilege of meeting several students while walking to and from class. At CU-Denver, I didn't meet a single soul outside of class until my third year of graduate studies.

How much effort does it take to smile and say “hello” to someone new while walking to class? Instead of yakking incessantly and getting stuck in your own alternative reality, why not open your eyes (and be aware) and dislodge those Borg implants from your ears (and listen with your hearts) for a day to be receptive to the limitless possibilities that life has to offer?

Cell phones are erasing the demarcation of what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. Similar to chat room users, cell phone users embrace the motto “Everything Goes” without subscribing to a standard “Rules of Etiquette.”

For example, one student - while conducting his No. 2 business in the first-floor Auraria Library men's room - was making plans for a dinner date with his girlfriend or wife. Why do people, particularly students, need to talk on their cell phones while pissing or taking a dump (otherwise known as bad bathroom habits and in need of remedial potty manners)?

Have ye no decency, sir?

=>Originally written for and published in the Nov. 9, 2005, edition of The Advocate, the University of Colorado at Denver’s editorially independent, student-run weekly newspaper.

Gary Hart — 9/11 Remembered

2006-09-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty, than that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. => James Madison in Federalist Paper #47.

University of Colorado at Denver—On the 5th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, Former Senator Gary Hart told an audience of more than 150 people at the King Center on Auraria Campus that 9/11 joins Dec. 7, 1941 as a day that will be remembered “in infamy.”

The fallout of 9/11 has led to a constitutional crisis with the executive branch, which has accumulated too much power by denying U.S. citizens due process of law, by wiretapping those citizens, and by “twisting” intelligence to fit predetermined ends and means, he said.

“9/11 has fundamentally altered our national character,” said Hart, Wirth Chair for Environmental and Community Development Policy at the Graduate School of Public Affairs. “Are we really a different type of people and nation? And is it really necessary to forgo civil liberties in the name of national security? We need to have an open and honest debate to honor the memory of the 9/11 victims.”

Hart said that he is concerned with the emerging "Imperial Presidency" and with America’s rising role of “Empire” in the last 50 years. These trends would have “severely alarmed” James Madison, he said.

When the executive branch plays the role and serves the function of the legislative and judicial branches—blatantly contrary to the specific terms of the U.S. Constitution—the president makes himself an autocrat and there is no rule of law, he said.

“Does the war on terrorism represent a grand strategy for the United States?” he asked. “This conflict cannot be solved by military force alone. It cannot be solved by one country alone, especially [by] a superpower like the United States.

“We must rebuild our traditional alliances badly shattered by the war in Iraq. We must demonstrate that we are good partners and equal allies in the defeat of the jihadist criminal networks.”

It is crucial to keep in mind that our conflict is with jihadists or “religious fanatics” who use terrorist methods. Military and intelligence officials misunderstand the challenge if they use the means of conventional warfare in a post 9/11 world and if they mistake the methods used—terrorism—for the threat itself—jihadism.

The jihadists’ main target is not America, but they pose an international threat that requires the United States to reevaluate and to retool its foreign policy, he said. Islamic fundamentalism is not an ideology per se, but it is more of a social, economic, and religious resistance to Western culture, he said.

“Would we defeat the jihad by invading and overthrowing the governments of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt?’ he asked. “The center of the jihad is now in Europe not in the Middle East. Can we identify and root out the terrorist cells in Hamburg, Madrid, and the Paris suburbs by invading and overthrowing the governments of Germany, Spain, and France?”

The war on terrorism will require new infiltration techniques and clandestine intelligence gathered by SWAT teams and special forces made up of American soldiers who look, speak, and eat like the natives, who covertly search for Al Queda operatives in the Afghan and Pakistani mountains, and who suppress and eliminate those cells, he said.

Conventional military victory in Iraq quickly became a conflict against an indigenous insurgency and a prolonged and bloody occupation, he said. The criminal jihadists, overwhelmingly not Iraqis, joined the insurgency to increase their recruitment, to inflame anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world, and to train for more attacks on the United States, he said.

“Invading Iraq was one of the biggest mistakes ever made in U.S. foreign policy,” he said. “Spreading democracy across the Persian Gulf is not likely to be a panacea so long as foreign combat troops remain on the Arabian Peninsula. We are not at war with the Muslim world, but we must drive a wedge between its peaceful cohabitants and this fanatical minority.”

As co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, he did envision the Department of Homeland Security as a monolithic agency, but he did expect it to be a coalition of government organizations working together to protect the country from harm.

Instead, the department has become too cumbersome, poorly managed, wastes too much money on pork-barrel contracts, and progress towards securing the country’s ports and borders has been “snail-like,” he said.

“We will be attacked again at home,” he said. “There is no perfect security for the United States and its citizens. There will always be risks. We are not nearly prepared as we ought to be and can be.”

Rep. Anne McGihon Craves Cold-Call Cash

2006-07-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Arapahoe County, Colorado—Tuesday afternoon, I got a prerecorded cold call from Rep. Anne McGihon (D-District 3), my state house representative, inviting me to a fundraising event at a very nice orange-red stucco house in the burbs. “Contributions are critical to my reelection in the state house and all donations are appreciated,” she says in her best concerned voice.

I showed up at the event to get her side of the story. Beaming with positive energy, she works the fundraiser like a pro by spending three to five minutes with each attendee and potential donor. In front of a 30+ captive audience, she makes a convincing case to reform healthcare and to increase support staff for state legislators.

McGihon wants to throw unlimited amounts of taxpayer money at social programs without taking into consideration the financial realities of the state (uh, remember TABOR?). The surprise came when she told her supporters that asking illegal immigrants to present legal IDs to receive state services is “unconstitutional” (yeah, right).

During a private moment, she said that the phone calls were intended to be made only to registered Democrats, yet I somehow received the same call as an unaffiliated voter. McGihon insists that fundraising for any campaign is a perpetual process for local, state, and federal officeholders.

Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, and Unity Party, etc. have ample opportunity to gather demographic info from advocates, citizens, contributors, businesses, and even lobbyists who are already interested in their causes. In turn, party officials and political candidates — incumbents more than 90 percent of the time — plug in the variables into a spreadsheet and create one powerful, pre-qualified guest list for future fundraisers, rallies, and socializers.

Why does a lawyer who’s running unopposed in her district need to solicit money from her low- to middle-class constituents for a part-time job that only pays $30K a year? Don’t the members of today’s bourgeoisie get enough compensation by representing their corporate and upper-class interests without resorting to siphoning money from the general populace?

When I got home, my roommate informed me that he had received the same call during a business meeting at work. He was fuming that she had the audacity to request money from him via his cell phone. He could not recall a single time when a political figure like her had ever done such a reprehensible thing.

I am an avid supporter of the First Amendment, so I have no problem with my state legislator executing her free speech rights to raise money for her reelection campaign and her right to peacefully assemble; however, bringing those invitations — with an attached “begging for dollars” clause — to the public-at-large via cold calling is tacky and totally unacceptable.

Plastinate Me, Please!

2006-06-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

For the cost of a one-way ticket to Heidelberg, Germany, you can donate your post-mortem self to the Institute of Plastination and have your body preserved, skinned, and posed in an infinite number of freaky ways. As long as you die of natural causes and your decedents send the body—freshly intact—directly to Dr. Günter von Hagens, you are pretty much guaranteed a spot in the limelight on the museum circuit.

When four friends opted out of a May 13th at 7 p.m. group tour of Body Worlds II at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, I dubbed them a bunch of wimps. However, 15 minutes into the tour, I felt numbed and nauseated and succumbed to queasiness. Surprisingly, my roommate found the displays to be enlightening and inspirational, while I found the exposed human origami to be distasteful, sensationalistic, and downright exploitative of the human body.

It’s not so much the process as it is the presentation that bothers me. In one pose, a behemoth of a man is vertically dissected into 100 slices with each piece suspended from the ceiling. In yet another disturbing pose, a bundle of nerves, tendons, and muscles gives the illusion of taking off a steep ski ramp – his upper torso split from brain to belly button.

“Drawer Man” is a sick-and-twisted example of the doctor’s sinister scalpel. Rectangular sections of flesh are cut and pulled out of an obese man’s cadaver by six to 12 inches—making Clive Barker’s Hellraiser series seem tame in comparison.

After two decades of reveling in horror movies and reading horror novels, I have outgrown the genre. I now prefer alternative music and theater, independent film, stand-up comedy, symphonies, and book-signing events to the gore of Wes Craven movies and the gross out of Stephen King. Much of modern-day horror scripts and storylines are utterly devoid of any hint of the human condition.

Watching gratuitous violence for the sheer pleasure of it is out of vogue.

The point is that Body Worlds II and much of contemporary horror places more emphasis on death, dying, and pure shock value, and not enough on the mystery of life. Yes, the exhibit has a few redeeming qualities such as satisfying our innate curiosity and fascination with the human anatomy and the ability to see in multi-dimensional detail the inner workings of the human body.

Despite the meticulous verification process that museums and their curators conduct, they have granted Dr. Günter von Hagens and his colleagues’ cart-blanche “artistic freedom” to use the donated cadavers in any way that they see fit regardless of community standards and acceptable modes of presentation.

If I were friends or family of the deceased, I would be concerned about the ethical treatment and posing of their loved-ones bodies before they are permanently preserved—viewed with shock and awe in a museum display.

Madeleine Albright Makes “Mighty and Almighty” Stop in Denver

2006-05-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

DENVER, Colorado—Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sat smartly, yet humbly in a tan leather chair at the Tattered Cover Bookstore’s guest lecture series to promote her new bestseller, “The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs.”

As I hurried to my back-row seat, I passed—within 10 feet—the most powerful woman in the world from 1997 to 2001. She and I exchanged a friendly wave and smile as the 200+ audience gave her a resounding applause. At the podium, Albright said that the United States needs to create a “moral” foreign policy instead of a “moralistic” foreign policy.

“I am not pretending to be a theologian and I haven't turned into a religious mystic,” she said. “But I really do think that because of 9-11 and other world events that it is very important to explore the role that God and religion plays in American foreign policy.”

Albright disputed the claim that a “clash of civilizations” is taking place between Christianity and Islam. Instead, she said that a “battle of ideas” is occurring in U.S. foreign policy, especially as it applies to the Iraq War and to the war on terrorism.

“The question that we should be asking ourselves is ‘What are we for?’ and not ‘What are we against?’”

Similar to Gary Hart’s admonition in “The Fourth Power,” Albright said that the greatest superpower in the world should come up with an overarching set of principles or values that will serve as a model for public policy decision-makers and as an example for other nations to follow.

“The District of Columbia is a totally toxic place to live,” said the former ambassador to the United Nations. “Liberals and conservatives need to find ‘areas of commonality’ that they can work on together to address our country’s problems.”

Albright listed four issues that people of all faiths can agree on and unite to find solutions including how to stop genocide, how to prevent the trafficking of people, how to help refugees, and how to promote tolerance. Albright surprised the crowd by mentioning that she had partnered with an unlikely ally to promote these goals—Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas).

“Every president since George Washington has invoked the name of God,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but the difference with George Bush is that he believes that God has called him to be president and that God is on our side. I think that Abraham Lincoln had it right when he said that we should strive to be on the side of God and not the other way around.”

Recall George Bush Jr. / Worst President in History?

2006-05-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

Three-quarters of the state legislatures should vote to amend the U.S. Constitution to add a “safety valve” clause that reads, “If the executive branch fails to meet and exceed the expectations of the citizenry and its representatives, then the U.S. Congress shall have the right to call for early elections of its top leaders.”

The best part of parliamentary governments including Canada, England, and Israel is that, when a “systematic breakdown” occurs, early elections are oftentimes called for when citizens and legislators lose confidence in their top officials whose policymaking priorities and decisions are out-of-touch and out-of-synch with the will of the people.

Can you imagine if the Republican-led U.S. Congress had the power to call for early elections so that the American electorate could vote for a more competent leadership team to the executive branch?

The only Cabinet official with a conscious, Colin Powell, has already left and even he’s arguing with the current secretary of state over prewar troupe strength. I say throw out the whole bad lot and start over again. Let's give someone with actual military experience such as Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) or Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) a chance to fix this hell-of-a-mess in that Bush & Rice, Inc. has conspired to mastermind and continues to blunder.

Every netizen should read The Worst President in History? by Historian Sean Wilentz, a critical assessment of the Bush Administration.

“Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties – Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover, and now Bush – have divided the nation, governed erratically, and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust.

“Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures — an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities.”